The Czar's Madman

Jaan Kross

Estonian nobleman Timotheus von Bock, friend and confidant of Tsar
Alexander I, was an idealist. Not only did he marry one of his
peasants, but in 1818 he wrote a memorandum to the Tsar saying exactly
what he thought of him. Incarcerated in prison as a result, he was
freed in 1827 on grounds of insanity but remained under surveillance.
Such is the historical background to Kross' novel The Czar's Madman,
which purports to be a journal kept by Jakob, the brother of Timo's
wife. (An afterword explains how much of the novel is factual.)

While Jakob is a rather dispassionate observer and the reader never
really identifies with any of its characters, The Czar's Madman still
compels. It has elements of a detective story, as Jakob gradually
uncovers the truth behind Timo's arrest and the details of his
imprisonment (and later the truth about his death). At the same time
he must cope with the vagaries of life under an absolute monarchy,
hiding his journal, trying to arrange a flight into exile, and all the
time wondering whether Timo really is mad. There is also interest in
his own love affairs and in the finely wrought portrait of Estonian
society in the early nineteenth century.

Kross is another novelist I had never previously heard of, for whom I
will henceforth keep a close watch. Apparently he has written a number
of historical novels, though I foresee some trouble finding English
translations of them.